the 5th Class CAN be Meelee/Ranged

WITHOUT weapon switch, mind yall. Here's my ingenious idea that'll tie up the loose ends I see in the 4 announced classes thus far:

When the Monk was announced, I became quite dismayed. And not because he's totally not awesome. But the balance of classes just doesn't seem right.
"Where's the tank?" I ask.
The Barb, most people have been telling me. Yeah-the-****-right. He wants to run in with guns (or hammers or swords) blazin with one in each hand. Don't tell me he's about defense and taking damage. In DII (I'll keep comparisons to a minimum), he was second in defense to the Paladin by a looong shot. With the final character to be revealed almost too obvious to be obviously an archer or ranged physical of some sort, that leaves out any option for a true platemailed tank...

Or so one would think...

My idea of an archer has a wrist mounted crossbow, like so: http://lilith.gods-inc.de/macavity/IsleOfShadows/weapons/artemis-huntress.jpg
This leaves his second hand open for an awesome shield in which he can bash opponents with, thusly making him a shield basher/archer extraordinaire, in no particular order. We'll call him the Ranger for now. His fighting style allows for utmost protection when it comes to choice of equipment, so you'll likely be outfitting him/her in full plate mails and heavy helmets. This allows him to be in the front lines with the Monk and the Barb, smashing away with his shield skills, and then start firing away at a moments notice. Man that sounds awesome...

So to translate this class' play style to actual gameplay, he would have both his crossbow and shield available by default. His skill and accessibility with both are balanced and he can use both alternately if he wants. Some skills and/or spells will strengthen his shield, letting him sit behind it sentry style and pick away with impunity. Other shield skills will be more offensive, like the Paladin's bash or charge. As for the crossbow, I see no reason why they wouldn't give him a volley shot. The Witch Doctor is having all kinds of fun volleying Skulls of Flame over the hordes of fallen to hit the shamans. Perhaps the Ranger can choose between a volley shot or a straight shot for some or all his arrow/bolt skills. The volley will have less velocity and therefor be slower and hurt less, but allows for single-target precision in crowds to deliver that awesome explosion arrow (or whatever arrow/bolt skills he has). The straight shot having less control but more speed and damage (not counting spell/skill damage, just physical weapon dmg).

The Ranger's resource system would obviously have something to do with keeping the two vastly different but enormously harmonious gadgets in balance.

And there we have it! A perfectly well-rounded group of five original character classes! What's that you tell me? 4-player limit, you say? ****....

i agree with you that i was a bit upset when they announced the monk for pretty much the same reason. i wanted a sword/shield tank and a archer(mainly archer) and the monk killed one of them for sure. your idea sounds interesting but i really like my archer to be more about quickness than strength but that does not mean your idea would not also be fun to me. my only concern would be balance. usually in these type of games the long range character are the easiest to kill. to give the best defense to a ranged character might be really unbalanced.

now to balance it i would assume they would lower the damage of either the crossbow or the shield (probably crossbow) to the point where it might take too long to actually kill anything. with a nerfed crossbow to balance the class you would end up using your shield 80% of the time or killing it transit which would bring us right back to the nimble archer.

Thanks for the feedback, Apocalypse. You're right about the OP issue, which strangely I haven't even considered yet.

-perhaps we could nerf his firing rate
-bow skills could have less AoE styles- we want him to be a true sniper anyways, not mage-like a la the DII Amazon.
-Shield skills could possibly demand that he put his crossbow away for full proficiency, and vice versa.

Otherwise, I don't think nerfing bow damage is too necessary, as long as it's not too powerful in the AoE department.

Or maybe we could downplay shield tactics but then we would have to downplay his entire Defense game, but not by too much. Plate mail instead of full plate is good still in my op.

Also, my nephew had brought up a good idea about the Ranger's travel skill (a la teleport/leap/spirit walk/double jump(?)). It can be a hookshot that is a part of his wrist contraption. Walls don't necessarily have to be the targets, he could simply shoot the ground around him in a small-ish radius and use the momentum to propel him forward.

Or maybe we could downplay shield tactics but then we would have to downplay his entire Defense game, but not by too much. Plate mail instead of full plate is good still in my op.

Also, my nephew had brought up a good idea about the Ranger's travel skill (a la teleport/leap/spirit walk/double jump(?)). It can be a hookshot that is a part of his wrist contraption. Walls don't necessarily have to be the targets, he could simply shoot the ground around him in a small-ish radius and use the momentum to propel him forward.

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Oh my god, you've just made the Link class. I won't respect Blizz if they don't put that in the game and have Myamoto at the launch.

lol i bet even in games of 4 i end up alone most of the time. people who play diablo have always been so greedy they are used to running off alone. even now with shared loot the idea of going off alone will be burned into their minds. that plus they wont wanna share shrines lol

WITHOUT weapon switch, mind yall. Here's my ingenious idea that'll tie up the loose ends I see in the 4 announced classes thus far:

When the Monk was announced, I became quite dismayed. And not because he's totally not awesome. But the balance of classes just doesn't seem right.
"Where's the tank?" I ask.
The Barb, most people have been telling me. Yeah-the-****-right. He wants to run in with guns (or hammers or swords) blazin with one in each hand. Don't tell me he's about defense and taking damage. In DII (I'll keep comparisons to a minimum), he was second in defense to the Paladin by a looong shot. With the final character to be revealed almost too obvious to be obviously an archer or ranged physical of some sort, that leaves out any option for a true platemailed tank...

Or so one would think...

My idea of an archer has a wrist mounted crossbow, like so: http://lilith.gods-inc.de/macavity/IsleOfShadows/weapons/artemis-huntress.jpg
This leaves his second hand open for an awesome shield in which he can bash opponents with, thusly making him a shield basher/archer extraordinaire, in no particular order. We'll call him the Ranger for now. His fighting style allows for utmost protection when it comes to choice of equipment, so you'll likely be outfitting him/her in full plate mails and heavy helmets. This allows him to be in the front lines with the Monk and the Barb, smashing away with his shield skills, and then start firing away at a moments notice. Man that sounds awesome...

So to translate this class' play style to actual gameplay, he would have both his crossbow and shield available by default. His skill and accessibility with both are balanced and he can use both alternately if he wants. Some skills and/or spells will strengthen his shield, letting him sit behind it sentry style and pick away with impunity. Other shield skills will be more offensive, like the Paladin's bash or charge. As for the crossbow, I see no reason why they wouldn't give him a volley shot. The Witch Doctor is having all kinds of fun volleying Skulls of Flame over the hordes of fallen to hit the shamans. Perhaps the Ranger can choose between a volley shot or a straight shot for some or all his arrow/bolt skills. The volley will have less velocity and therefor be slower and hurt less, but allows for single-target precision in crowds to deliver that awesome explosion arrow (or whatever arrow/bolt skills he has). The straight shot having less control but more speed and damage (not counting spell/skill damage, just physical weapon dmg).

The Ranger's resource system would obviously have something to do with keeping the two vastly different but enormously harmonious gadgets in balance.

And there we have it! A perfectly well-rounded group of five original character classes! What's that you tell me? 4-player limit, you say? ****....

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Personally I dont think I tank class will be needed, from all ive seen the characters seem to do well enough, if a fight requires I little Defense I can see the barb with a shield for higher AF but he doesnt need it all the time thus he can go with weapons 99% of the time.

I love the crossbow on the wrist idea though, I do thing a duel wield bower would be a very inserting class.

yeah thats how i always try to play, does not always work out that way. was a lot easier to do that when i was younger. now i need my kids to grow up and join me in the fight

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Haha, this should be put in the site header. :nod:

@ Diablocalibur: Don't worry 'bout nerfing this and that, in the end it is all about math, what is really necessary in a class-idea is the idea in it (did you get it? :wink. A groundbreaking idea goes a long way.

I liked your idea, I just find it kinda hard to picture volley shots with crossbows, you can't change the intensity of the pull.

It is a neat idea, but you have to remember blizzard does not want to have class roles (tanks, healers and DPS ) everyone is there to to preform damage. Although they do seem to be following the archetypes from D2.

and if that goes like that i bet the expansion will have something like a Shaman to replace the druid, since there both nature based ( shaman can have some minor shape-shifting ability, i doubt there will be werewolf or bear anymore.)

Unless I'm mistaking, the only two fire skills so far are the Witch Doctor's Skull Bomb (or whatever its name is) and the Wizard's Hydra. Therefore, I think the fifth class should and will have some fire skills. I'm guessing we'll see some ranged character with exploding arrows/bolts/throwing weapons, and/or some Assassin-like fire traps.

Also, so far, the Witch Doctor has the only skill that does black magic damage. Unless it is changed to arcane damage, it would seem strange that only one skill does this. Maybe the fifth class does some dark, spooky things as well? :nervous: :scared:

I'm officially calling my idea/class, the Sentinel. He's a brilliant genius inventor who tries to make a device to travel and/or control time and, after much trial and error, inadvertently ends up with a wrist-mounted crossbow with an extra arm to adjust for volley shots. He also tucked in a hookshot for good measure.
After hearing news of the meteor and feeling that it was time and time which had fallen into place, he dons his full suit of armor from his Paladin days (zakarum shield included) and sets off for New Tristram.

As for the fire skills discussion, I don't think anything looks better accompanying a fiery flame than the beautiful arch of an arrow.